KINGSTON'S HISTORY: Look who’s buried in our town’s backyard

By Tom Vendetti

Tuesday

Jul 11, 2017 at 10:00 AM

As we celebrate July 4 this week, it is fitting that we look back to see what the Revolution meant to Kingston residents in 1776.

As we celebrate July 4 this week, it is fitting that we look back to see what the Revolution meant to Kingston residents in 1776. During our War of Independence revolutionary fervor gripped this town, and the citizens of Kingston overwhelmingly answered the call to arms. Town historian Sarah Y. Bailey wrote that nearly one half of the men of Kingston served the cause of liberty! Many townsmen gave extraordinary service as already described in these short articles.

One can only imagine how difficult it was for the men of “King’s Town” to take up arms against king and country. They had all been born Englishmen and were taught to be loyal to the crown. Furthermore, open rebellion was a great personal risk for the patriots, their families and community, since from the point of view of the British rebellion was treason!

A few chose to remain loyal to the king. Some left for Canada, others remained in Kingston. Samuel Foster and his son Charles, both fervent loyalists, were arrested while working in their fields and charged with being “internal enemies of the government.” They were tried in the Meetinghouse in 1777, found guilty, and sentenced to confinement on a prison ship in Boston Harbor. Ten months later, thanks to the intercession of the wife of Charles Foster and a Kingston lawyer, they were released and returned to the town. Robert Foster, another son of Samuel was also an outspoken Tory who fled to England and Nova Scotia. A broken man, he eventually returned home in 1791, the year of his death. The graves of Charles, Robert, and Samuel Foster are found among their patriot neighbors in the Old Burying Ground.

The patriot Rev. William Rand rests in the Old Burying Ground as well. He was born at Charlestown on March 24, 1700, and graduated from Harvard College in 1721. In June 1722, he became the minister in Sunderland, Massachusetts, where he was ordained in May 1724. The Rev. Rand was dismissed from the Sunderland church in 1745 owing to his opposition of the firebrand itinerant preacher Rev. George Whitefield, who was greatly admired by church leaders in that town. Thaddeus Mccarty, the second minister of First Parish Church in Kingston, was himself removed for attempting to bring Whitefield here to preach. Thanks to Rand’s opposition of Whitefield, he was selected as Kingston’s third minister serving for 33 years from 1746 to 1779. He married twice: first to Bridget, daughter of Westwood Cooke of Hadley, Massachusetts. She died on June 29, 1777, at 77; then to Rebecca, who died on July 14, 1801, at 90 years.

Rand lived in the ancient Willett House on Wapping Road, next to the Jones River. Initially, Rand lived closer to the Meeting House, but he became irritated with the numerous congregants who dropped by for doughnuts and refreshment on their way to Sunday services.

Rev. Rand was not one to shy away from bringing politics to the pulpit. One interesting story comes down from historian Thomas Bradford Drew, who tells of Rand reading a proclamation of King George to the congregation. Upon completing the reading, Rand turned the document over to offer his own critical response, which angered a Tory sea captain seated in the Meeting House. Outraged by Rand’s commentary, the captain…“left the house in an excited manner, slamming the pew door after him and shuffling his feet on the floor as he passed down the aisle. To irritate him a little more, just as the he was passing out of the house, one in the congregation cried out to him, ‘Shet the door arter ye, Captain,’” much to the amusement of the audience.”

Rand’s epitaph reads:

“In Memory of the Rev. M. William Rand, died March

Ye 14, 1779 aged 79 years wanting 7 days.

Here’s one who long had run the Human Race:

Kindly relieved reclines his hoary head,

And sweetly slumb’ring in this dark embrace

Listens the welcomed sound, ‘Arise ye dead’ ”

Kingston’s Old Burying Ground is one of our town’s historic treasures. You may visit the Old Burying Ground and the graves of Samuel, Charles and Robert Foster as well as the Rev. William Rand by parking in front of the First Parish Church on Main Street and entering to the left.

History by Tom Vendetti (with special thanks to Susan Aprill at the Kingston Public Library), with Craig Dalton – Kingston Historical Commission

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